As I walked out into the sunlight, I came across the lamia goddess lying on a large rock, her eyes closed in bliss. Her long tail coiled around the area, emerald scales positioned to soak up as much sunlight as possible.

Since the woman appeared to be sleeping, I moved quietly, trying to find Zohral.

"How are you feeling?"

I jumped. The lamia hadn't moved, but green light danced in an open eye. Pouting internally at my prided stealth being useless, I walked over.

"About as well as can be expected, I suppose," I said to her.

She nodded, closing her eye again. She was relaxing face-down, bare back turned to the sun. As I sat down next to her, I asked about Zohral's whereabouts.

"He's gone back. He hates when he's used as an errand boy, so he always refuses to spend more time than necessary."

"Who gets to use gods as errand – oh, the major gods, right?"

She nodded again. "It's not as bad as it sounds, but it's something of a sore subject for him. Given the population size of his species, he feels he's worth more respect."

"And you don't?"

She smiled sadly. "My people don't breed very easily. I'd be lucky if there were even one million worldwide."

Her eyes snapped open and she sat up, shirt popping into existence around her. "Have you decided what to do? I don't know how likely it is that we can send you back; I’ve never heard of other beings able to rip space, so we probably wouldn't be find your world to send you back."

That world's probably turned into dust by now.

"I was actually thinking about figuring out something to do here," I said tentatively, "Only, I don't really know how to go about doing that."

"What did you do before?" The question was accompanied by a twirl of her tail.

"Ah, it was, um, specialized work, nothing I think would work here." Um? Where was my silver tongue? I normally had no trouble evading questions.

The fight with the kulgar came back to mind. If I could consistently do magic…

A while later, I had found out that the world civilization here was quite similar to my home, although the basis of technology here was on magic, and not physical science. People who could use magic were common enough, with certain races finding a particular type easier to use, and there was a variety of jobs available for fire users. Anisibon had listed various opportunities, highlighting bodyguards as the perfect job. She seemed to think that because the helmet had killed the kulgar I was a trained fighter.

I had a different job in mind from the list, one that would put me near high-rollers while still giving me good cover. It did, however, depend on how well I could use the magic.

After talking a little more, I walked back into the cave, munching on a pear Anisibon had created for me. I needed to figure out how to use the flames.

Sitting on the bed, I started questioning the helmet on the flames it had used during the fight. As I read its responses, I learned that the first flames it had used were the current maximum my arm was capable of channelling. The only reason it had been able to use the blue flames was because it had already decided to sacrifice my arm. If I wanted to use that level of power again, my body enhancement would need to complete, which would take months.

"Months? You were already at 18% when the gods encountered us. Me," I corrected myself.

External energy source was converted for enhancement use.

Enhancement schedule capable of reduction with additional energy source.

Option: Enhancement focus on arm?

I thought it over. It would certainly help me with my goal, I imagined, and it wouldn't hurt to have some extra firepower. My thoughts soured as I considered the possibility that the helmet might decide to sacrifice my other arm in some crisis.

I chose the option, then put out my hand, palm up. "Fire," I commanded, and a tiny orange flame appeared. I blinked, caught between giddiness and disappointment. "That's all?"

Energy manipulation entered as part of user training.

It took me some time to figure out how to adjust the size of the flame. Under vague instruction in the form of blue messages, I realised I could feel a faint connection to the fire. It was a similar sensation to having a feather barely brush against you, only somewhere in my head.

However, any time I focused on that feeling, it disappeared. Frustrated, I ignored it.

I stared at the candle flame hovering in my palm. ~It's something like a gas cooker,~ I realised, ~where the helmet ignites it and I adjust the dials.~

Closing my eyes, I visualized a dial set to minimum. I slowly turned it up, feeling the feather brush a bit more firmly. When I could feel the heat on my face, I opened my eyes, finding a fire ball the size of a fist in front of me.

My mind dissolved into excitement and happiness. The fireball's immediate disappearance did nothing to dampen my feelings; I could do magic!

I conjured up the fireball again, making it larger and smaller over and over. I was reminded I needed to move on to the next step of my plan when I nearly burnt my eyebrows off making the fire into a towering column.

I moved away from the bed. I lifted up both arms before remembering my new lack of symmetry. Biting down the wave of resentment, I faced my palm towards the front, and began to practise.

* * *

"Sorry I can't take you closer than this," said Anisibon. "Teleportation won't work any further than this, and we're not allowed to fly mortals around anymore."

We were standing on the top of a hill. In the distance, I could vaguely make out a small town. Shifting the backpack to a more comfortable position, I smiled at the goddess.

“It’s no problem, you’ve done lots for me anyway,” I said. “You said that that’s the first defensive outpost?”

She nodded, saying, “Yes, as I told you, you probably won’t find much to do there, but you’ll be able to get to a proper city much more easily, and set yourself up with some basics.”

After wishing me good luck, the goddess lifted into the air and flew off. I tracked her progress until she was out of sight. The way her tail slithered through the air reminded me of a painting I once stolen from a Chinese museum.

Maybe the artwork hadn’t been a complete flight of fancy after all.